Tsuchiyama-juku

Tsuchiyama-juku in the 1830s, as depicted by Hiroshige in The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō

Tsuchiyama-juku (土山宿 Tsuchiyama-juku) was the forty-ninth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Kōka, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

History

Tsuchiyama-juku flourished as a post town during the Edo period because of its location at the entrance to the Suzuka Pass (鈴鹿峠 Suzuka Tōge). However, the Suzuka Pass was also the reason for the post town's decline in the Meiji period; the pass was too steep for rail lines to be placed down, so the rail went through Terashō Station (also in present-day Kōka), bypassing the formerly flourishing town. The remains of the honjin can still be visited today.^[1]

Neighboring post towns

Tōkaidō

Sakashita-juku - Tsuchiyama-juku - Minakuchi-juku

References

1. Shiga Prefectural Tourism Information: Tsuchiyama-juku Honjin. (Japanese) Biwako Visitors Bureau. Accessed March 14, 2008.